A flavour of the anger and the determination of those suffering Gatwick concentrated arrival flight paths

Date added: April 14, 2015

There is a rising level of anger, upset, stress and despair among people living in areas far to the east of Gatwick airport, mainly under newly concentrated landing routes. Areas such as Hever, Penshurst, Chiddingstone and Penshurst are badly affected by plane noise, though they are miles from the airport. As the level of background noise in quiet rural villages is low, the impact of the aircraft noise is far worse than that perceived at equivalent distances from Heathrow, in densely urban areas. Gatwick airport no longer replies to those who complain about its planes, and prefers to focus its efforts on lobbying people around Heathrow. Its ubiquitous adverts rub salt in the wounds, for local people, by making out how few people would be affected by its runway. Politicians, councils, aviation industry take the level of noise that people suffer at Heathrow seriously. But the noise endured by those near Gatwick is not taken as seriously. Below are some of the comments by people who are suffering from the impacts of Gatwick, and getting no satisfaction or understanding from the airport. One comment: “It is not OK for my family to be woken up at 4:30am and it is not OK to be listening to that horrible whining and thundering din late into the night.” And “What Gatwick and its planes are doing to people in our area is totally unacceptable ….We will fight this to any extreme.”
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Comments from people living in areas like Hever, Chiddingstone and Penshurst – on 13th April.

These locations are around 24 kilometres away from Gatwick Airport. That is about the same distance away as Camberwell and Brixton from Heathrow.

The difference is that London areas have high background noise – the rural villages of Kent and Sussex have very low background noise. The equivalent noise level experienced by these areas, taking background noise into account, is more like that experienced by – perhaps? – Richmond or Putney.

The authorities (politicians, councils, aviation industry) take the level of noise that people suffer at Heathrow seriously. For some reason, the noise endured by those near Gatwick is not taken as seriously.

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Is Gatwick strategy for expansion to suggest the people affected are worth less than the people affected by Heathrow?

(The 18,000 figure is highly debatable – origin is the Airports Commission, for those within a 54 Leq contour).

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This is just torture again this evening and the reality is, no one gives a 5hit.

How many hours have we spent complaining, exposing the lies that we are being told by the airport?

How many responses do we get – from the GAL, or the CAA or NATS? None. Who’s listening?

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We have lost faith in the system of regulation of airspace, and we want the Department of Transport to directly intervene.

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Our children are at the A Level stage and there is absolutely no doubt that their education is being damaged. There is nothing I wouldn’t do to right that wrong.

Where’s Paul Carter, where’s Greg Clark? How does Dame Deirdre Hutton justify her huge salary for 2 days a week? Who’s responsible for these ‘vectoring
choices’?

It’s an absolute scandal, but the reality is no one will ever front up and take responsibility for the destruction of Kent and Sussex. Our absolute sense of fury will be compounded by the fact that we are impotent to do anything about it.

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Which one of our politicians will have the courage to admit, in a few years: ” Oh yes, Hever Castle used to be open to the public but we allowed it to be blitzed by aircraft noise, in order to boost the profits of foreign investors.”

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Unfortunately the injustices perpetrated against us by Gatwick will either eat us away until our health gives out. Or we will be forced out of our homes – probably tens of thousands of pounds out of pocket, leaving lasting financial and psychological scars.

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I thought it would take a lifetime to be this disappointed.

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I’ve just got home and the whining made my heart sink and made me fall into despair. What Gatwick and its planes are doing to people in our area is totally unacceptable and it should be thoroughly ashamed. We will fight this to any extreme.

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It is time for Gatwick to actually take some notice of all these genuine complaints. The Gatwick Complaints pro forma states that a complainant will receive a reply. But they never do !

The concentrated narrow arrivals path will NOT be tolerated and is not necessary.

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I have made yet another (unanswered) complaint not about a single aircraft, but about the umpteen low flying planes that terrorised Chiddingstone over the entire weekend.

It is simply not acceptable to concentrate an arrival flight path over this Tudor village in addition to running planes in and out of Gatwick at outrageously anti-social times. It is not OK for my family to be woken up at 4:30am and it is not OK to be listening to that horrible whining and thundering din late into the night.

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Gatwick airport and its management, in its dealings with the public who are affected by its operations, are a disgrace and whoever is responsible for controlling their behaviour should be taking steps to force improvements.

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Imagine if this sustained emotional assault, caused by the intolerable aircraft noise, was being imposed by a private company on land. It would not last for more than a half day before the authorities put a stop to it. But those managing the airspaces above our heads seem immune from reasonable sanctions. This leads one to quite reasonably conclude that those managing the airspace above West Kent are either incompetent, corrupt or both.

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Letter (extracts) from one upset resident to Tom Denton, of Gatwick Airport:

Tom, can you explain this: its been a while since I directly and politely asked you a question at the Gatwick ‘Airspace Change Seminar’ as to why I and everyone else now have to choose between aircraft to complain about on a daily basis. You have changed the policy to one-a-day since August 2014 and told nobody publicly and couldn’t even recall the day the policy changed. I have made my one-a-day complaints through your website and have received no replies. WHY?

Of primary importance to the success of your bid for a second runway is to engage with the communities that surround you and that are affected by noise. You are doing none of this, yet spend your time talking to communities around Heathrow and South London who never experience noise from Gatwick.

I have [ X children and they hate aircraft now. My eldest, if you are interested, is busy studying for [ her /his ] A Levels – s/he wants to do medicine and is finding concentrating extremely hard with the incessant noise. That is the impact your policies are having. This is not a 40 – 50 year old simply being grumpy or over-sensitive… it’s a generational and community problem.

The image below is clear evidence of concentration of arrivals and departures over the most densely populated parts of the High Weald – Crowborough, Tunbridge Wells, Southborough, Bidborough, Penshurst, Chiddingstone, Hever.

Thus in one fell swoop you are ‘increasing those who are significantly overflown’ these are just a few examples of the many bombarding us at the moment dawn till, well, dawn.

I might as well send them to you now as your ‘Flight Performance Team’ no longer answers, that ok?

Unfortunately CASPER shows aircraft to an exaggerated scale … bit like the posters you’ve put up all over London saying how few of us are affected. But yes, that is a lumbering A388 at 3,500ft. And yes, the next one is a departing aircraft at wait for it … 3,709ft. We live [18 – 20 ] miles from the airport and pre 2013 never even considered complaining.

Lets face it, you have implemented your concentrated flightpaths and are hoping that all us normal people will simply go away.